Molina wins as title race goes to the wire

Starting from second on the grid Audi‘s Miguel Molina dominated the first race at the Hockenheimring to take his second victory of the season and the third of his career. Behind him came title rivals Marco Wittmann and Edoardo Mortara, with the former extending his lead in the championship going into the final race on the year.

BMW‘s Antonio Felix da Costa started on pole position for his penultimate DTM Series race, but the Portuguese driver was soon passed by Molina and subsequently Wittmann. However, all eyes were on Mortara who starting from eighth place had a lot of ground to make up if he was to keep his championship chances alive.

Talking about his progress through the field, Mortara commented: “Advancing from eighth on the grid to third is good for the show, yet anything but easy. I knew that my chance would come at the end of the race, because that’s the strength of our Audi RS 5 DTM.

“Except for Timo Glock, all BMW drivers were very fair. Now I’m hoping for us to show a similar performance tomorrow and to be able to make up the 17 points.”

Championship leader, Wittmann had a much quieter race in comparison which saw the Spaniard finish just under two seconds behind the German.

“That was a good race for us,” the BMW Team RMG driver commented after the race. “On the whole, we had good pace and second place means we gained another three points on Mortara. That was important.

“You have to acknowledge that he also drove a good race. Despite this, I am well-placed for tomorrow’s season finale. I will continue to focus solely on doing my job in the cockpit.”

Behind the leading trio came Felix da Costa and Mike Rockenfeller in fourth and fifth place, while René Rast finished sixth in only his second DTM race.

Timo Glock, Jamie Green, Tom Blomqvist and Paul di Resta completed the points scoring positions. Green’s eighth place meant the British driver is now out of contention for the championship, while di Resta was the leading finisher of the eight Mercedes drivers.